Q: What are your physics/science interests?

I’m broadly interested in observational astronomy, and specifically passionate about exoplanets, astrochemistry, and habitability research. I’m motivated by the search for Earth-like worlds and the desire to understand how different types of planets form and evolve. I’m also interested in applications of data science and machine learning to observational astronomy, which is becoming more and more relevant as a wealth of new data becomes available.  

Q: What are your other interests?

Besides doing research, I love to write about new discoveries in the astronomy magazine Sky & Telescope. I’m also an editor at my college’s student newspaper and a tour guide for the Harvard Art Museums. In my free time, I like to read, go on hikes, hang out with friends, and sample the best coffee shops in the greater Boston area. 

Q: What would you like to do after college?

I would love to get a PhD in Astrophysics and continue researching exoplanet worlds and habitability. I also hope to keep writing and thinking about science for different news outlets and popular science magazines. My dream is to become a professor and science writer, so I can continue to think deeply about research questions in astronomy while sharing my love for the field with readers!

 Q: Tell us one strange but interested fact about yourself?

Last May, I spent four days taking observations at the Submillimeter Array on top of Mauna Kea, a volcano and observatory base in Hawaii. On the third day at around 3 AM, in the middle of our shift, we heard a loud noise and a slam on the window outside, and the shade buckled. To this day I’m convinced that it was a ghost.  

Q: What first sparked your interest in Physics?

I visited my grandparents in rural New Hampshire every year when I was little, and nights spent around a bonfire looking up at more stars than I could count sparked my initial curiosity about space. My dad then gave me a picture book with images of the cosmos taken by Hubble, and I loved getting lost in its pages. The more I learned about space, physics, and the fundamental laws of our world, the more I wanted to learn, so when I came to college, I tried out the introductory physics and math courses and I guess I just never really looked back.   

Q: If you could have any pet, what would it be?

Lots of Siamese cats! 

Q: If you had a free month and unlimited funds, how would you spend your time?

I would travel to all seven continents with my family and friends. I would also buy a Fabergé egg. 

Q: If you could get a grant to study anything, what would it be?

I would use the money to build a telescope that could probe exoplanet atmospheres with more resolution than ever before, so that we could search for biosignatures and markers of life.